A Dunnes Stores trustee, Mr Noel Fox, has said that a £282,500 sterling cheque for the benefit of Mr Charles Haughey "left my memory" for almost a decade, and he recalled it again only last weekend.
Mr Fox, a chartered accountant, said he had "absolutely no knowledge" of the cheque sent to him in May 1987 until Oliver Freaney & Co brought it to his attention during a Dunnes audit in 1988-90.
But he did not make a connection between the cheque and Mr Haughey until the auditors discovered last February that the Tripleplan directors were the Cayman Island bankers, the late Mr John Furze and Mr John Collins.
He was "quite shocked" to hear their names as they triggered memories of the Haughey payments detailed at the McCracken tribunal in 1997.
This tribunal heard that Mr Fox had been requested by Mr Des Traynor, Mr Haughey's personal financier, to write a cheque for £205,000 to Mr Furze. Mr Fox said that since writing that cheque "the name Furze has always stuck in my mind".
When questioned by the auditors between 1988 and 1990 about the Furze and Tripleplan cheques, Mr Fox did not volunteer any information as he felt bound by confidentiality. From that point, he lost any recollection of the Tripleplan cheque. "It did go out of my mind," said Mr Fox.
He only remembered it and being asked about it last weekend after he was shown a memorandum from Mr Kevin Drumgoole, an audit manager with Oliver Freaney, dating from October 1989. The memorandum specifically requested information on the "Tripleplan and J. Furze" payments.
Mr John Coughlan SC, counsel to the tribunal, asked if he could summarise Mr Fox's position as follows: "As a professional accountant, significant audit issues had been raised with you of which you knew at the time and they went out of your mind for the period of the 90s until last weekend when you saw the memorandum?"
Mr Fox replied: "That is my evidence, that when I saw the memorandum from Kevin Drumgoole I accept he raised Tripleplan with me in 1989 and Furze."
Mr Coughlan: "If it were to be suggested to you that that seems wholly incredible, what would your response to that be?"
Mr Fox: "I think that would be very unfair. I totally forgot the name Tripleplan and the connection to the Haughey monies and it was when Furze and Collins came out as directors that I connected it back. When I saw Mr Drumgoole's memorandum last week end, I accept he raised it with me in 1989 and that is my evidence."
Mr Fox accepted the newly revealed payment was a matter of "great embarrassment and upset to me both professionally and personally". Had the Tripleplan cheque not "completely left my memory", he would have told the McCracken tribunal about it. He had not kept any notes of communications with Mr Traynor, he added.
Although he had been a member of Oliver Freaney since the late 1950s, Mr Fox said he had never been involved in any of the company's audits of Dunnes Stores. His role within the firm was limited to insolvency and corporate recovery activities.
Mr Fox, one of four Dunnes Stores trustees, said he had not spoken to Mr Dunne since 1993 when the supermarket chief initiated a legal action against the settlement trust. The legal battle was "very serious and acrimonious".
Mr Fox said he had known the late Mr Traynor professionally but not socially. They were on first-name terms, however.
Mr Fox said that regarding his own evidence to the McCracken tribunal, he "never lost the John Furze name. I knew that Mr Furze was the banker involved in the transaction. He was the one named, that did stick in my mind," he said.
"Always stuck in your mind?" asked Mr Coughlin.
"I think I related it to a furze bush, to be honest," said Mr Fox.
The Tripleplan payment had been posted to the accounts of Dunnes Stores Ireland and it was a debit in that account. There was no corresponding asset, although Mr Fox had every confidence that Mr Dunne would "personally look after these payments".
The payment, dated May 20th, 1987, had been made many months before the first payment which was disclosed to the McCracken tribunal.
Mr Fox accepted that a compliment slip written by a senior Dunnes executive, Mr Matt Price, had shown the cheque was sent to him at Oliver Freaney. He also accepted that he had sent it on to Mr Traynor and felt it must have been intended for Mr Haughey.
The Tripleplan cheque differed from the Furze cheque only in that it had not been stamped with identifiable bank marks, said Mr Fox. He added: "I believe all these payments were for the benefit of Mr Haughey."
Mr Coughlan suggested the first time he spoke to Mr Traynor about raising money for Mr Haughey was considerably earlier in 1987 than it had appeared during the McCracken tribunal. Mr Fox told him: "In the course of the McCracken tribunal, I could not remember exactly when I was approached, but I must draw the inference that it was much earlier than that cheque."
During the McCracken tribunal, Mr Dunne had recalled how Mr Fox had approached him about Mr Traynor's proposal and had suggested that he provide the full amount required by Mr Haughey. He intended to do this in a confidential manner.
Mr Dunne had said that around the same time as the payments made to Mr Furze, Mr Traynor had made an another approach for money urgently required. Yesterday Mr Fox conceded that the £282,500 cheque made to Tripleplan was the payment Mr Traynor required so urgently.
"I believe now that he must have made his approach prior to May 1987 and that these payments all form part of the one transaction," said Mr Fox. Although he could not remember exactly when Mr Traynor had approached him, it could have been March or April.
Asked whether he had introduced Mr Dunne to Mr Haughey in 1986, Mr Fox said this was the case to the best of his knowledge, although he could not remember when. "I believe he must have approached me shortly before the payment was made that was urgent."